The Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on Thursday night, blanking them, 3-0, to earn a Wild Card Series sweep and advance to the National League Division Series.
A lot has been said about Clayton Kershaw’s struggles in the postseason, but Game 2 belonged to him as he put up arguably his best October start ever. Kershaw was in control all night, commanding the strike zone with all of his pitches.
The result was eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and issuing only one walk. He struck out 13 batters, setting a new postseason career high. The eight innings pitched matched the longest outing Kershaw has turned in during the playoffs.
He ran into a bit of trouble in the eighth inning when he issued his only walk of the night to Luis Urias. Kershaw was able to pick him off first base, and on the next pitch struck out David Freitas to end the inning and finish his night strong.
Brusdar Graterol then took care of business in the ninth to earn his first career postseason save, ending the Brewers’ season.
Dodgers offense finally gets to Woodruff in fifth inning
For most of the night Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff matched Kershaw pitch for pitch as he struck out eight through four shutout innings.
The Dodgers finally got to him in the fifth, scoring three runs to effectively put the game out of reach. Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor got the rally started with back-to-back singles with one out.
After a fielder’s choice by AJ Pollock, Austin Barnes stepped to the plate in the biggest at-bat of the night. He may have struggled offensively in the regular season, but Barnes came up big for his team this time with an RBI single up the middle to break the scoreless tie.
Mookie Betts then followed with a two-run double, his third extra-base hit of the series, to account for the second and third runs, which was more than enough for Kershaw and Graterol to close it out.
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